Lely Astronaut A4 milking robot wins prestigious award in Poland

The Lely Astronaut A4 milking robot has been acclaimed as ‘Agricultural machine of the year 2012’ in Poland.

This prestigious award, granted by the Institute of Technology and Life Science, is the major prize awarded in Poland to leading manufacturers of equipment for the agricultural business.

The jury comprised of professors and staff members of several agricultural universities, the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the government body KRUS (which is a social insurance company for the agricultural sector). To come to their final judgement, the jury members visited, among others, various dairy farmers as well as agricultural shows.

The main criteria for granting this award were:

• modern as well as innovative solutions
• ergonomics and safety
• functionality and performance
• quality as well as an aesthetic construction
• overall output

The award will be presented on the 16th of March during a professional show in Kielce.

The newest generation of milking robots, the Lely Astronaut A4, was launched in November 2010. For dairy farmers, this robot model offers an even more flexible and economic milking solution. In addition, this milking robot has further improved animal wellbeing as well as giving a new boost to acceptance of automated milking. The most revolutionary feature of the Lely Astronaut A4’s milking unit is the walk-through design (I-flow concept). The cow can walk straight into and out of the box, without any obstruction whatsoever. Thus, the threshold for cows has been lowered even further and the animals can enter the milking unit at their own pace.

About the Lely Group

Lely aims all of its efforts on cattle farmers to further improve their financial as well as social wellbeing, also enabling them to anticipate market developments. For 60 years the name Lely has been a synonym for products, services and solutions that are relevant and meaningful to cattle farmers, simply because they have been developed to meet their specific requirements. Consequently, Lely is the uncontested market leader in sales and servicing of automated milking systems; in addition, the company holds a strong position in forage solutions. The company is active in more than 60 countries and it employs 1,300 people. The annual turnover amounts to 390 million euro.